FOREWORD - THE CHALLENGE OF OUR TIMES

In the last four years, Britain has recovered her confidence and
self-respect. We have regained the regard and admiration of other
nations. We are seen today as a people with integrity, resolve
and the will to succeed.

This Manifesto describes the achievements of four years of Conservative
government and sets out our plans for our second term.

The choice before the nation is stark: either to continue our
present steadfast progress towards recovery, or to follow policies
more extreme and more damaging than those ever put forward by
any previous Opposition.

We face three challenges: the defence of our country, the employment
of our people, and the prosperity of our economy.

How to defend Britain's traditional liberties and distinctive
way of life is the most vital decision that faces the people at
this election.

We have enjoyed peace and security for thirty-eight years - peace
with freedom and justice. We dare not put that security at risk.

Every thinking man and woman wants to get rid of nuclear weapons.
To do that we must negotiate patiently from a position of strength,
not abandon ours in advance.

The universal problem of our time, and the most intractable, is
unemployment.

The answer is not bogus social contracts and government overspending.
Both, in the end, destroy jobs. The only way to a lasting reduction
in unemployment is to make the right products at the right prices,
supported by good services. The Government's role is to keep inflation
down and offer real incentives for enterprise. As we win back
customers, so we win back jobs.

We have a duty to protect the most vulnerable members of our society,
many of whom contributed to the heritage we now enjoy. We are
proud of the way we have shielded the pensioner and the National
Health Service from the recession.

Only if we create wealth can we continue to do justice to the
old and the sick and the disabled. It is economic success which
will provide the surest guarantee of help for those who need it
most.

Our history is the story of a free people - a great chain of people
stretching back into the past and forward into the future.

All are linked by a common belief in freedom, and in Britain's
greatness. All are aware of their own responsibility to contribute
to both.

Our past is witness to their enduring courage, honesty and flair,
and to their ability to change and create. Our future will be
shaped by those same qualities.

The task we face is formidable. Together, we have achieved much
over the past four years. I believe it is now right to ask for
a new mandate to meet the challenge of our times.

MARGARET THATCHER

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

Britain is once more a force to be reckoned with. Formidable difficulties
remain to be overcome. But after four years of Conservative government,
national recovery has begun.

When we came to office in May 1979, our country was suffering
both from an economic crisis and a crisis of morale. British industry
was uncompetitive, over-taxed, over-regulated and over-manned.
The British economy was plagued by inflation. After only a brief
artificial pause, it was back into double figures. This country
was drifting further and further behind its neighbours. Defeatism
was in the air.

We did not disguise the fact that putting Britain right would
be an extremely difficult task. The second sharp oil price increase
and the deepest world recession since the 1 930s have made those
difficulties worse. At the same time, the Western world is passing
through another transformation from the age of the smokestack
to the era of the microchip. Traditional industries are being
transformed by the new technologies. These changes have led to
a rapid rise in unemployment in almost every Western country.

Our opponents claim that they could abolish unemployment by printing
or borrowing thousands of millions of pounds. This is a cruel
deceit. Their plans would immediately unleash a far more savage
economic crisis than their last; a crisis which would, very soon,
bring more unemployment in its wake.

The truth is that unemployment, in Britain as in other countries,
can be checked and then reduced only by steadily and patiently
rebuilding the economy so that it produces the goods and services
which people want to buy, at prices they can afford.

What We Have Achieved

This is the task to which we have steadfastly applied ourselves
with gradually increasing success. Prices are rising more slowly
now than at any time for fifteen years. Britain is now among the
low-inflation nations of the Western world. Output is rising.

We are creating the conditions in which trade and industry can
prosper. We have swept away controls on wages, prices, dividends,
foreign exchange, hire purchase, and office and factory building.

We have returned to free enterprise many state firms, in order
to provide better service to the customer and save taxpayers'
money.

We have cut income tax rates and raised allowances at all levels.

We have more than protected pensions against rising prices. We
have strengthened the National Health Service. We have given council
tenants the right to buy their own homes.

We have strengthened the police and the armed forces of the Crown.

We have done all this and more, and still kept our promise to
bring public spending under control.

We have paid off nearly half the overseas debts the Labour Party
left behind. Once the IMF's biggest borrower, we are now playing
a leading part in strengthening international trade and finance
- to the benefit of the poorest countries on earth.

And we have acted so that people might live in freedom and justice.
The bravery, skill and determination with which Britain's task
force recaptured the Falklands reverberated around the world.
Many small nations gave thanks for that stand; and our allies
in the North Atlantic are heartened by what Britain achieved in
the South Atlantic.

Over the past four years, this country has recaptured much of
her old pride. We now have five great tasks for the future. They
are:

to create an economy which provides stable prices, lasting
prosperity and employment for our people;

to build a responsible society which protects the weak but
also allows the family and the individual to flourish;

to uphold Parliamentary democracy and strengthen the rule
of law;

to improve the quality of life in our cities and countryside;

to defend Britain's freedom, to keep faith with our allies
in Europe and in NATO, and to keep the peace with justice.

These tasks will require sustained determination, imagination
and effort from Government and people alike.

JOBS, PRICES AND UNIONS

During the years of recession, now coming to an end, even the
most successful of our competitors have faced increasingly serious
problems and mounting unemployment. Despite all these difficulties,
the Conservative Government has been overcoming Britain's fundamental
problems: restoring sound money, setting a better balance between
trade unions and the rest of society, bringing efficiency to the
nationalised industries, and developing effective policies to
mitigate the curse of unemployment.

The foundations of recovery have been firmly laid. In the next
Parliament, we shall build on this progress.

Success Against Inflation

Steadier prices and honest money are essential conditions for
recovery. Under the last Labour government, prices doubled and
inflation soared to an all-time peak - despite the existence of
a battery of controls on prices, profits, dividends and pay.

Today, there are no such controls. Yet prices are rising more
slowly than at any time since the 1 960s. During the last year,
inflation has come down faster in Britain than in any other major
economy. With lower inflation, businessmen, families, savers and
pensioners can now begin at last to plan and budget ahead with
confidence.

In the next Parliament, we shall endeavour to bring inflation
lower still. Our ultimate goal should be a society with stable
prices.

We shall maintain firm control of public spending and borrowing.
If Government borrows too much, interest rates rise, and so do
mortgage payments. Less spending by Government leaves more room
to reduce taxes on families and businesses.

We shall continue to set out a responsible financial strategy
which will gradually reduce the growth of money in circulation
- and so go on bringing inflation down.

Our opponents are once again proposing the same financial policies
that led to such appalling inflation and chaos in the past.

Labour's 'National Economic Assessment' is a stale repeat of the
Social Contract which ended so disastrously in the Winter of Discontent.
Once again, the Labour Party is committed to carry out trade union
leaders' instructions in exchange for mere expressions of goodwill.

Commonsense in Pay Bargaining

With lower inflation. we have seen a return to commonsense in
pay bargaining. Uncertainty and anxiety about rising prices have
contributed to the absurdly high pay claims that destroyed so
many jobs. As inflation subsides, people in work can see the prospect
of real, properly-earned improvements in their living standards
- which have gone up by more than 5 per cent on average over the
last four years. So long as sensible government policies are matched
by sensible attitudes in industry and commerce, these living standards
can continue to improve.

The last four years have shown that a bureaucratic machine for
controlling wages and prices is quite unnecessary. It simply stores
up trouble and breeds inefficiency.

But Government remains inescapably responsible for controlling
its own costs. We are committed to fair and reasonable levels
of pay for those who work in the public services. We shall therefore
continue to seek sensible arrangements for determining pay in
the Civil Service and the National Health Service, following the
Megaw Report and the resolution of the NHS pay dispute.

It is equally our duty to the nation as a whole to prevent any
abuse of monopoly power or exploitation of the sick, the weak
and the elderly. So we must continue to resist unreasonable pay
claims in the public sector.

Trade Union Reforms

In the return to more sensible pay bargaining, the trade unions
have an important part to play.

They can be powerful instruments for good or harm, to promote
progress or hinder change, to create new jobs or to destroy existing
ones. All of us have a vital interest in ensuring that this power
is used democratically and responsibly.

Both trade union members and the general public have welcomed
the 1980 and 1982 Employment Acts, which restrain secondary picketing,
encourage secret ballots, curtail abuse of the closed shop, and
restore rights of redress against trade unions responsible for
committing unlawful acts.

But some trade union leaders still abuse their power against the
wishes of their members and the interests of society. Our 1982
Green Paper, Democracy in Trade Unions, points the way
to give union members control over their own unions. We shall
given union members the right to:

hold ballots for the election of governing bodies of trade
unions;

decide periodically whether their unions should have party
political funds.

We shall also curb the legal immunity of unions to call strikes
without the prior approval of those concerned through a fair and
secret ballot.

Political Levy

Consultations on the Green Paper have confirmed that there is
widespread disquiet about how the right of individual trade union
members not to pay the political levy operates in practice, through
the system of contracting-out. We intend to invite the TUC to
discuss the steps which the trade unions themselves can take to
ensure that individual members are freely and effectively able
to decide for themselves whether or not to pay the political levy.
In the event that the trade unions are not willing to take such
steps, the Government will be prepared to introduce measures to
guarantee the free and effective right of choice.

Essential Services

The proposal to curb immunity in the absence of pre-strike ballots
will reduce the risk of strikes in essential services. In addition,
we shall consult further about the need for industrial relations
in specified essential services to be governed by adequate procedure
agreements, breach of which would deprive industrial action of
immunity. The nation is entitled to expect that the operation
of essential services should not be disrupted.

Involving Employees

Good employers involve their employees by consulting them and
keeping them fully informed. This is vital for efficiency as well
as harmony in industry. We shall continue to encourage it. Many
employers have already done much in recent years to establish
a long-needed sense of common purpose with their workforces. We
shall resist current attempts to impose rigid systems of employer/employee
relations in Britain. We will continue to encourage workers to
identify with the success of the firm for which they work, by
the promotion of share-ownership and profit-sharing.

In each of the last two years, largely as a result of tax changes
we have introduced, about a quarter of a million employees have
acquired shares in the companies that employ them.

When state industries are offered to the private sector, we have
given their employees the chance to buy shares in them, and many
have exercised this right.

Unemployment: Coping with Change

During the last four years, unemployment in the industrialised
countries has risen more sharply than at any time since the 1
930s. Britain has been no exception. We have long been one of
the least efficient and most over-manned of industrialised nations.
We raised our own pay far more, and our output far less, than
most of our competitors. Inevitably, this pushed prices up and
drove countless customers to buy from other countries, forcing
thousands of employers out of business and hundreds of thousands
of workers out of jobs.

At the same time, there has been a rapid shift of jobs from the
old industries to the new, concentrated on services and the new
technologies. Tragically, trade unions have often obstructed these
changes. All too often this has delayed and reduced the new and
better-paid jobs which could replace those that have been lost.

This Government has an impressive record in helping the unemployed
who, usually through no fault of their own, are paying the price
of these past errors.

We have committed over £2,000m. this year to training and
special measures for the unemployed. This is supported by substantial
help from the European Community's Social Fund, amounting to over
£250m. in 1982. As long as unemployment remains high, we
shall maintain special measures of this kind, which bring effective
help to many of those who have no job.

This year, some 1,100,000 people are being trained or helped by
the most comprehensive programme of its kind in Europe.

For the first time, the new Enterprise Allowance Scheme offers
many thousands of unemployed people the support they need, but
previously could not get, while they start their own businesses.
We will maintain special help for the long-term unemployed through
the Community Programme, and for the older unemployed through
early retirement schemes.

Removing the Barriers to Jobs

We shall go on reducing the barriers which discourage employers
from recruiting more staff, even when they want to. And we shall
help to make the job market more flexible and efficient so that
more people can work part-time if they wish, and find work more
easily.

That is why we have amended the Employment Protection Act and
why we shall continue to:

minimise the legal restrictions which discourage the creation
of new jobs;

encourage moves towards greater flexibility in working practices,
such as Part-Time Job Release, which makes it financially possible
for people nearing retirement age to go part-time; and the Job-Splitting
Scheme which helps employers to split a whole-time job into two
part-time jobs;

improve the efficiency of the employment services in identifying
and filling job vacancies;

ensure that Wages Councils do not reduce job opportunities
by forcing workers to charge unrealistic pay rates, or employers
to offer them.

Training

If we are to make the most of the employment opportunities that
present themselves in an age of rapid change and more varied patterns
of work and occupation, up-to-date training is essential.

Training for work must start with better, more relevant education
at school. For school leavers, we have provided the most imaginative
and far-reaching scheme in our history. The Youth Training Scheme
offers every 16-year old a year of serious training for work.
It should help 350,000 youngsters by the autumn of this year.
From now on, no one leaving school at 16 need be unemployed in
his first year out of school.

This is only a part of our wider strategy to ensure effective
training for the skills and jobs of tomorrow - on a scale and
of a quality to match the world's best. At its heart is our reform
of industrial training and the apprenticeship system.

We are improving the scope and quality of our training for the
employed and unemployed alike; tackling problems which the Labour
Party has never had the courage to face.

We shall continue to provide for, and improve, the special employment
and training needs of the disabled, and to reform our training
agencies to meet more effectively the needs of industry and workers
alike.

The Nationalised Industries

Reform of the nationalised industries is central to economic recovery.
Most people who work in these industries work hard and have a
sense of public service. Since 1979, we have gone to great lengths
to improve the performance of the state sector, to appoint top-class
managers and work closely with them to tackle each industry's
problems.

But for all this, few people can now believe that state ownership
means better service to the customer. The old illusions have melted
away. Nationalisation does not improve job satisfaction, job security
or labour relations - almost all the serious strikes in recent
years have been in state industries and services. We have also
seen how the burden of financing the state industries has kept
taxes and government borrowing higher than they need have been.

A company which has to satisfy its customers and compete to survive
is more likely to be efficient, alert to innovation, and genuinely
accountable to the public. That is why we have transferred to
private ownership, in whole or in part, Cable and Wireless, Associated
British Ports, British Aerospace, Britoil, British Rail Hotels,
Amersham International, and the National Freight Corporation.
Many of their shares have been bought by their own employees and
managers, which is the truest public ownership of all.

We shall continue our programme to expose state-owned firms to
real competition. In telecommunications, we have licensed a new
independent network, Mercury, and have decided to license two
mobile telephone networks. We have allowed competition in commercial
postal services. Already, standards of service are beginning to
improve. Investment is rising. And better job opportunities are
being opened up.

We shall transfer more state-owned businesses to independent ownership.
Our aim is that British Telecom - where we will sell 51 per cent
of the shares to the private sector Rolls Royce, British Airways
and substantial parts of British Steel, of British Shipbuilders
and of British Leyland, and as many as possible of Britain's airports,
shall become private sector companies. We also aim to introduce
substantial private capital into the National Bus Company. As
before, we will offer shares to all those who work in them.

We shall also transfer to the private sector the remaining state-owned
oil business - the British Gas Corporation's offshore oil interests.

We have abolished the Gas Corporation's statutory monopoly of
the supply of North Sea gas to industry. Already there has been
a vigorous new lease of life for gas exploration and development
in the North Sea, which had ground to a complete halt under Labour.
In the last Parliament, we passed a law to encourage the private
generation of electricity. In the next Parliament, we shall seek
other means of increasing competition in, and attracting private
capital into, the gas and electricity industries.

Merely to replace state monopolies by private ones would be to
waste an historic opportunity. So we will take steps to ensure
that these new firms do not exploit their powerful positions to
the detriment of consumers or their competitors. Those nationalised
industries which cannot be privatised or organised as smaller
and more efficient units will be given top-quality management
and required to work to clear guidelines.

ENCOURAGING FREE ENTERPRISE

We want to see an economy in which firms, large and small, have
every incentive to expand by winning extra business and creating
more jobs. This Conservative Government has been both giving those
incentives and clearing away the obstacles to expansion: the high
rates of tax on individuals and businesses; the difficulties facing
the small firm trying to grow, and the self-employed man trying
to set up on his own; the blockages in the planning system; the
bottlenecks on our roads; the restrictions on our farmers and
fishermen; and the resistance to new ideas and technologies.

In the last four years, many British firms have made splendid
progress in improving their competitiveness and profitability.
But there is some way to go yet before this country has regained
that self-renewing capacity for growth which once made her a great
economic power, and will make her great again.

Only a government which really works to promote free enterprise
can provide the right conditions for that dream to come true.

Lower and Simpler Taxes

In the last four years, we have made great strides in reducing
and simplifying taxes. We have:

cut the basic rate of income tax; raised tax allowances above
the level we inherited after allowing for price rises;
brought the higher rates of income tax down to European levels;
and made big reductions in the investment income surcharge, which
have particularly helped the old;

removed many of the worst features of Capital Transfer Tax,
Capital Gains Tax and Development Land Tax;

cut business taxes, in particular the National Insurance Surcharge,
Labour's tax on jobs, from 3½ per cent to 1 per cent;
and improved stock relief for businesses;

much reduced the taxes on, and increased the incentives for,
gifts to charities;

greatly reduced tax bureaucracy. Manpower in the Inland Revenue
and Customs & Excise has fallen from 113,400 in April 1979
to 98,500 in April 1983, and is set to fall further.

This dramatic progress is all the more striking when compared
with the vast increases in taxation which our opponents' policies
would inevitably bring.

The changes to this year's Finance Act on which Labour have insisted
show that they intend just this. We shall reverse those changes
at the earliest opportunity.

Further improvements in allowances and lower rates of income tax
remain a high priority, together with measures to reduce the poverty
and unemployment traps.

We want to encourage wider ownership. This means lowering taxes
on capital and savings; encouraging individuals to invest directly
in company shares; and encouraging the creation of more employee
share schemes.

More Small Firms

We have reduced the burdens on small firms, especially in employment
legislation and planning, and cut many of the taxes they pay,
particularly Corporation Tax. Our Loan Guarantee Scheme has already
backed extra lending of over £300m. to about 10,000 small
firms. The new Business Expansion Scheme, a major extension of
the Business Start-up Scheme, will encourage outside investment
in small companies by special tax reliefs. The construction of
new premises for small businesses has more than doubled.

To help the engineering industry and the areas most dependent
on it, we have introduced and now extended a very successful scheme
of grants (SEFIS) to smaller firms, which help them to buy new
machinery.

Thanks to these policies and over one hundred other important
measures, the climate for new and smaller businesses in the UK
has been transformed and is now as favourable as anywhere in the
world.

Help for the New Technologies

Even during the recession, our new industries and technologies
made remarkable progress. Britain has more micro-computers in
relation to its population than any other country. We have speeded
this progress by supporting research and spreading knowledge of
the technologies of tomorrow; and by increasing government support
for the new technologies from £100m. in 1978-9 to over £350m.
in 1983-4. But that is only the beginning. We will now:

promote, in partnership with industry, the Alvey programme
for research into advanced information technology;

accelerate the transfer of technology from the university
laboratory to the market place, especially by the encouragement
of science parks;

help firms to launch new products through pilot schemes and
public purchasing;

build on the successes of our 'Micros-in-Schools' scheme and
our network of Information Technology Centres for the young unemployed
so that they are equipped with tomorrow's skills;

sanction the launch of new cable networks to bring wider choice
to consumers, not just for entertainment, but for the whole new
world of tele-shopping and tele-banking.

Regions, Enterprise Zones and Freeports

We shall continue to maintain an effective regional policy which
is essential to ease the process of change and encourage new businesses
in areas which have been dependent on declining industries. We
do not propose sudden changes in regional policy. But we will:

make sure that these policies are economical and effective
in creating genuine jobs;

secure more effective co-ordination between central and local
government and the European Community's Regional Development Fund
to ensure that their actions offer the greatest help to communities
in need;

further develop local self-help initiatives, the 24 Enterprise
Zones and, our latest innovation, duty-free trading zones, which
will be established in certain experimental 'Freeports';

diversify regional economies by encouraging the fullest use
of our schemes for innovation.

Planning

In our crowded country the planning system has to strike a delicate
balance. It must provide for the homes and workplaces we need.
It must protect the environment in which we live.

One particular way to achieve this is by bringing back into use
the thousands of acres lying derelict and unused, so much of which
is in the ownership of local authorities or other public bodies.
We have set up Land Registers to identify this land, and we shall
now use our powers to bring it into use. The more this land can
be used, the less the need to build on Green Belts and the countryside.
We will also bring open-cast coalmining within normal proper planning
control, and we shall establish more control over intensive livestock
units near residential areas.

Energy

Britain has come from nowhere to be the world's fifth largest
oil producer. The North Sea success story has been a triumph of
private enterprise for the nation's benefit. We shall continue
to ensure that our taxation and licensing policies encourage development
in the North Sea.

In the next Parliament, the interests of the whole country require
Britain's massive coal industry, on which we depend for the overwhelming
bulk of our electricity generation, to return to economic viability.

We shall press ahead with the development of safe nuclear power.
It is an important way of securing lower-cost electricity for
the future. We shall set up an Energy Efficiency Office to co-ordinate
the Government's conservation effort, so as to ensure that the
taxpayer gets the best value for money.

We recognise that some energy users have special needs. This is
why we have:

ensured that standing charges no longer dominate the bills
of small gas and electricity consumers;

increased help for the needy with their fuel bills, leading
to many fewer disconnections;

and

introduced more favourable terms for the energy-intensive
industries.

Better Transport for Industry

The national motorway and trunk road network will continue to
be developed and improved to high-quality standards. This will
not only make driving much safer for all, but also speed and cheapen
the transport of goods. We will also seek to make rail freight
more competitive.

Many of our ports have now been returned from state control to
independent ownership. We intend that they should provide profitable
and efficient services without the taxpayers' support.

Tourism

Our hotels, resorts and tourist attractions are important because
they provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, earn valuable foreign
exchange, and provide holidays for millions of our own people.
We shall continue to support the Tourist Boards and tourism projects
throughout the country.

Farming and Fishing

British farming and horticulture have improved dramatically since
1979. Exports have leapt to £2,500m. a year. Since 1978,
our self-sufficiency in food has risen by more than a sixth, from
53 per cent to 62 per cent.

In Europe, our tough negotiating stance has doubled our farmers'
share of the help available under the Common Agricultural Policy.
The cost of the CAP to British taxpayers doubled under Labour.
Under us, it has been falling in real terms. We have reversed
the Labour Government's disastrous policy for the Green Pound
which harmed British farmers. At the same time, we have not neglected
the consumers' interest. Food prices more than doubled under Labour
and rose faster than other prices. Under the Conservatives, they
have risen less than other prices. Last year they grew by less
than one per cent, the smallest rise for nearly twenty years.

We have given special help to Britain's hill farmers, and agreed
very worthwhile Community schemes for beef and sheepmeat. These
have all brought great benefits to Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
and the uplands of England. We have launched successfully the
'Food from Britain' campaign, which should help us sell far more
of our products both at home and in the rest of the Community.

We shall help the glasshouse industry to sell more fruit and vegetables,
and to make use of the best possible arrangements for heating
and insulation.

We welcome the fact that, after long negotiations, the National
Farmers' Union and the Country Landowners' Association have agreed
on the best way to make more farm tenancies available for young
people. We shall legislate on these lines at an early opportunity.
We intend to make sure that British agriculture and horticulture
continue to make the greatest possible contribution to our economic
success.

We have successfully negotiated a Common Fishing Agreement that
provides British fishermen with the greatest advantages in our
waters in the industry's history. For the first time since we
joined the Community, we now have effective conservation measures,
and can look forward to expanding, rather than declining, stocks
of fish. During the next Parliament, we shall introduce measures
to restructure the fishing industry and to encourage investment
and better marketing.

RESPONSIBILITY AND THE FAMILY

Freedom and responsibility go together. The Conservative Party
believes in encouraging people to take responsibility for their
own decisions. We shall continue to return more choice to individuals
and their families. That is the way to increase personal freedom.
It is also the way to improve standards in the state services.

Conservatives believe equally strongly in the duty of Government
to help those who are least able to help themselves. We have more
than carried out our pledges to protect pensioners against price
rises and to maintain standards in the National Health Service.
This rebuts the totally unfounded charge that we want to 'dismantle
the Welfare State'. We are determined that our public services
should provide the best possible value both for people they seek
to help and for the taxpayer who pays the bill.

A free and independent society is one in which the ownership of
property is spread as widely as possible. A business which is
partly or wholly owned by its workers will have more pride in
performance. Already firms like the National Freight Company,
where managers and workers joined together to take over the business,
are thriving.

Under this Government, the property-owning democracy is growing
fast. And the basic foundation of it is the family home.

Housing: Towards a Home-owning Democracy

We have given every council and New Town tenant the legal right
to buy his or her own home. Many Housing Association tenants have
been granted the same right, too. This is the biggest single step
towards a home-owning democracy ever taken. It is also the largest
transfer of property from the State to the individual. No less
than half a million council houses and flats were sold in the
last Parliament to the people who live in them. By our encouragement
of private housebuilding and our new range of schemes to help
first-time buyers, there are a million more owner-occupiers today
than four years ago.

The Labour Party has met these proposals with vicious and prolonged
resistance and is still fighting a rearguard action against wider
home ownership. A Labour government would take away the tenant's
right to buy his council house, would prevent councils selling
even voluntarily at a discount, and would force any former tenant
who wanted to sell his house to sell it back to the council.

In the next Parliament, we will give many thousand more families
the chance to buy their homes. For public sector tenants, the
present 'Right to Buy' scheme will be improved and extended to
include the right to buy houses on leasehold land and the right
to buy on a shared ownership basis. The maximum discount will
be increased by one per cent a year for those who have been tenants
for between twenty and thirty years, taking the maximum discount
to 60 per cent. We shall also help first-time buyers who are not
council tenants through our various low-cost home-ownership schemes:
'homesteading', building for sale, improvement for sale, and shared
ownership.

Britain needs more homes to rent, too, in the private sector as
well as the public sector. For years, the blind prejudice of the
Labour Party has cast a political blight on privately rented housing.
But our assured tenancy scheme has encouraged builders to start
building new homes to rent again, and our shorthold scheme is
helping the private sector to meet the needs of those who want
short-term rented accommodation.

We shall extend our Tenants' Charter to enable council tenants
to get necessary repairs done themselves and be reimbursed by
their councils. Housing Improvement Grants have been increased
substantially in the last two years and will continue to play
an important role.

We shall conduct early public consultation of proposals which
would enable the building societies to play a fuller part in supporting
the provision of new housing and would bring up to date the laws
which govern them.

Our goal is to make Britain the best housed nation in Europe.

Protecting the Pensioner

Over the last four years, the retirement pension has risen from
£19.50 to £32.85 a week for a single person and from
£31.20 to £52.55 for a married couple. Even after allowing
for price rises, pensioners can buy more with their pension today
than they could under the last Labour government. We have ended
Labour's unreliable system of relying on forecasts of price rises
to decide by how much to increase the pension. In five of the
last seven years, those forecasts turned out to be wrong. In future,
pensions will be related to actual and not estimated price increases.

In the next Parliament, we shall continue to protect retirement
pensions and other linked long-term benefits against rising prices.
Public sector pensioners will also continue to be protected on
the basis of realistic pension contributions. In this Parliament,
we raised to £57 a week the amount pensioners may earn without
losing any of their pension. It remains our intention to continue
raising the limit and to abolish this earnings rule as soon as
we can. The Christmas Bonus, which Labour failed to pay in 1975
and 1976, will continue to be paid every year in accordance with
the law we passed in 1979.

Over 11.5m. people - half the working population - are now covered
by occupational pension schemes. We will consider how the pension
rights of 'early leavers', people who change jobs, can be better
protected and how their members may be given fuller information
about their pension schemes.

Social Security

Supplementary benefits, too, have been raised ahead of prices.
To encourage thrift, instead of penalising it, the Government
has also raised the amount of savings people can keep without
losing any supplementary benefit. At the same time, we have clamped
down firmly on fraud and abuse of social security.

Expenditure on cash benefits to the disabled is 21 per cent higher
than under Labour, even after allowing for rising prices. There
has been extra help, too, for those who are least able to afford
their fuel bills.

We have introduced - and extended - a widows' bereavement allowance.
We have kept the war widows' pension ahead of prices and removed
it from tax altogether.

Child benefit and one-parent benefit are to be raised in November
to their highest-ever level in real terms. We have also improved
the family income supplement scheme to help low-paid working families.

Our record shows the strength of our commitment. But our ability
to help depends on the wealth which the country produces. In Britain
today, over 40p in every pound of public spending is already devoted
to health and social security. It is hypocritical for the Labour
party to pretend that they could raise public spending on benefits
by thousands of millions of pounds without admitting the vast
increases in taxation and national insurance contributions that
would be needed, or the increased inflation that would result.

The National Health Service

We have more than matched our pledge to maintain spending on the
National Health Service and secure proper value for money. Even
after allowing for price rises, the nation is spending substantially
more on health, and getting better health care.

By last year, there were 45,000 more nurses and midwives, and
over 6,500 more doctors and dentists, working for the NHS than
in 1978. This has helped to make it possible to treat over two
million more patients a year in our hospitals. Until last year's
futile strike, waiting lists for treatment fell sharply.

We intend to continue to make sure that all patients receive the
best possible value for the money that is spent on the Health
Service. The treatment of the elderly, the mentally handicapped
and the mentally ill will continue to make extra provision for
those parts of the country in the North and the Midlands which
have always been comparatively short of resources.

Unlike the last Labour government which actually cut the hospital
building programme by one-third, we have committed £1,100m.
to our large-scale programme for building new hospitals. There
are now 140 new hospitals in that programme being designed or
built. We shall continue to upgrade existing hospitals and brighten
up shabby wards.

To release more money for looking after patients, we will reduce
the costs of administering the Health Service. We are asking health
authorities to make the maximum possible savings by putting services
like laundry, catering and hospital cleaning out to

competitive tender. We are tightening up, too, on management costs,
and getting much firmer control of staff numbers.

Most people who are ill or frail would prefer to stay in or near
their own homes, rather than live in a hospital or institution.
Helping people to stay in familiar surroundings is the aim of
our policy 'Care in the Community'. The Government has given extra
powers and extra cash to health authorities to enable them to
finance such community care for individual patients on a long-term
basis.

Partnership in Care

Conservatives reject Labour's contention that the State can and
should do everything.

We welcome the growth in private health insurance in recent years.
This has both made more health care available, and lightened the
load on the NHS, particularly for non-urgent operations. We shall
continue to encourage this valuable supplement to state care.
We shall promote closer partnership between the State and the
private sectors in the exchange of facilities and of ideas in
the interests of all patients.

We also welcome the vital contribution made by voluntary organisations
in the social services. We shall continue to give them strong
support. The Conservative Government has already made many radical
changes in law and taxation which have greatly improved the way
charities and voluntary bodies are financed. The terms governing
gifts under covenants have been much improved, and the liability
to capital taxation has been lightened or swept away.

We shall continue to support our highly successful 'Opportunities
for Volunteering' scheme. In the next Parliament, we shall develop
other new ways to encourage more private giving.

Schools: The Pursuit of Excellence

For a long time now, parents have been worried about standards
and discipline in many of our schools. This Conservative Government
has responded to that worry with the Parents' Charter and the
1980 Education Act. For the first time:

local authorities were obliged to take account of parents'
choice of school for their children;

schools were obliged to publish prospectuses, giving details
of their examination results;

parents were given the right to be represented on school governing
bodies;

the Government offered Assisted Places to enable less well-off
parents to send bright children to some of the best independent
schools.

Giving parents more power is one of the most effective ways of
raising educational standards. We shall continue to seek ways
of widening parental choice and influence over their children's
schooling.

We shall defend Church schools and independent schools alike against
our opponents' attacks. And we shall defend the right of parents
to spend their own money on educating their children.

This country is now spending more per child in school than ever
before, even after allowing for price rises. As a result, the
average number of children per teacher is the lowest ever. Exactly
how the money is spent, and how schools are run, is up to local
education authorities.

But the Government can help improve standards and make sure that
children are taught and trained for the world they will grow up
into.

Until now, HM Inspectors' reports have remained secret. Now
we are publishing them and making sure they are followed up, too.

We are not satisfied with the selection or the training of
our teachers. Our White Paper sets out an important programme
for improving teacher training colleges.

We shall switch the emphasis in the Education Welfare Service
back to school attendance, so as to reduce truancy.

We have given special help for refresher courses for teachers,
research into special schools, and play groups and nursery schools
where they are most needed.

We shall also encourage schools to keep proper records of
their pupils' achievements, buy more computers, and carry out
external graded tests. The public examination system will be improved,
and O-level standards will be maintained.

We are setting up fourteen pilot projects to bring better
technical education to teenagers. The success of these will play
a vital part in raising technical training in Britain to the level
of our best overseas competitors.

Higher Education

Our universities and polytechnics, too, must generate new ideas
and train the skilled workforce of the next generation. We have
unrivalled institutions and unrivalled inventive genius - as the
number of British Nobel prize-winners shows. What matters is to
bring the two closer together and make the best practical use
of both.

Britain has more students in professional training than Japan,
and a greater proportion of young people in higher education than
France or West Germany. More of our young people are now entering
full-time degree courses than under the last Labour government.
And a larger proportion of them complete their courses than in
most other countries.

The very large sums of public money now going to higher education
must be spent in the most effective way. Within that budget, we
want to see a shift towards technological, scientific and engineering
courses.

We have set aside money for 700 new posts for young lecturers
over three years to bring new blood into research.

Over the next three years, we will provide for more teaching
and research on information technology, with new posts for lecturers,
and 2,200 new places for students.

Sport and Recreation

The Government has increased the real level of funding for the
Sports Council. The Urban Aid and Derelict Land Programmes have
also contributed to new sporting projects. By these means, and
by offering one pound of government money for every one pound
raised locally, we have begun to transform sports facilities in
the inner cities.But there are still plenty of sports facilities
which could be opened up to the general public. In particular,
to reinforce our initiatives for better use of schools and playing
fields, we shall urge every local education authority to make
school and college premises available for use outside school hours
and in the holidays. In all these initiatives, voluntary bodies
will be enabled to play a bigger part.

We have kept up the pressure for public access to parks and reservoirs
for anglers and all those who enjoy and respect the countryside.

Safety. Quality and Value For Money

The best way to protect the consumer is to bring price rises down
and keep them down, and to increase competition. We have achieved
both, and so helped the housewife far more than any bureaucratic
system of controls. We have also brought the state industries
under the scrutiny of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, and
exposed many of them to competition to prevent them from exploiting
their customers.

We shall remain vigilant in defence of the quality and safety
of the products people buy. But we shall also reduce government
intervention wherever it is unnecessary or harmful to the interests
of the customer.

The provisions of our Data Protection Bill will meet public concern
that computers pose a particular threat to privacy, and will enable
us to ratify the European Convention on Data Protection.

Supporting Family Life

It is not for the Government to try to dictate how men and women
should organise their lives. Our approach is to help people and
their families fulfil their own aspirations in a rapidly changing
world. As an employer, this Government is fulfilling its commitment
to equal opportunities for men and women who work in the public
services. We have brought forward for public discussion proposals
for improving the tax treatment of married women, whether or not
they go out to work.

We are reviewing the family jurisdiction of the courts, including
their conciliation role, with a view to improving the administration
of family law. We shall also reform the divorce laws to offer
further protection to children, and to secure fairer financial
arrangements when a marriage ends.

LAW, DEMOCRACY AND THE CITIZEN

The rule of law matters deeply to every one of us. Any concession
to the thief, the thug or the terrorist undermines that principle
which is the foundation of all our liberties. That is why we have
remained firm in the face of the threats of hijackers and hunger
strikers alike. The defeat of the occupation of the Iranian Embassy
is only one example of our determination to be patient but still
unyielding.

Backing the Crime-Fighters

We recognised from the start the immense and continuing public
concern about lawlessness, particularly in some of our larger
cities. We acted immediately to fulfil our pledges to give the
hard-pressed police every possible backing.

The strength of the police force now stands at record levels:
9,000 extra policemen have been recruited in England and Wales
alone since 1979. They are much better paid and equipped than
ever before. We shall be ready to increase police establishments
where necessary in the war against crime.

Thousands more policemen are back on the beat, where the public
wishes to see them, instead of being isolated in panda cars. It
takes time for any reform in police training and methods to achieve
its full effect, but already street crime is being reduced and
public confidence improved in some of the worst inner-city areas.

The proposals embodied in our Police and Criminal Evidence
Bill will help the police to bring criminals to justice. At the
same time, they will reinforce public support for the police by
laying down clear rules for the proper treatment of suspects.
We shall also build more courtrooms to reduce delays in trying
criminal cases.

Last year's Criminal Justice Act has given the courts tougher
and more flexible sentencing powers. This Act makes parents more
responsible for crimes committed by their children, and improves
compensation for the victims of crime.

Courts will also continue to impose Community Service Orders
which compel offenders to make amends by doing useful work for
the local community. We shall set up more compulsory attendance
centres to which the courts can send young hooligans. The invaluable
work of the Probation Service will continue to be supported.

There must be enough prison places to cope with sentences
imposed by the courts. We shall complete our major programme of
building which will provide another 4,800 places in ten new prisons.
And we are recruiting more prison officers to staff them.

We will also respond to the increasing public concern over
obscenity and offences against public decency, which often have
links with serious crime. We propose to introduce specific legislation
to deal with the most serious of these problems, such as the dangerous
spread of violent and obscene video cassettes.

We accept the case for an independent prosecution service,
and will consider how it might best be set up.

We intend to extend substantially the grounds that disqualify
those with criminal records from serving on juries.

Dealing with crimes, civil disobedience, violent demonstrations
and pornography are not matters for the police alone. It is teachers
and parents - and television producers, too - who influence the
moral standards of the next generation. There must be close co-operation
and understanding between the police and the community they serve.

Immigration: Firm and Fair

We are utterly opposed to racial discrimination wherever it occurs,
and we are determined to see that there is real equality of opportunity.
The Conservative Party is, and always has been, strongly opposed
to unfairness, harassment and persecution, whether it be inspired
by racial, religious or ideological motives.

To have good community relations, we have to maintain effective
immigration control. Since 1979, immigration for settlement has
dropped sharply to the lowest level since control of immigration
from the Commonwealth began more than twenty years ago. By passing
the British Nationality Act, we have created a secure system of
rights and a sound basis for control in the future; and we will
continue to pursue policies which are strict but fair.

The Supremacy of Parliament

The British Constitution has outlasted most of the alternatives
which have been offered as replacements. It is because we stand
firm for the supremacy of Parliament that we are determined to
keep its rules and procedures in good repair.

We have modernised the Select Committees to improve Parliament's
ability to keep a check on the actions of the Executive. We shall
continue to pursue sensible, carefully considered reforms where
they are of practical value.

Labour want to abolish the House of Lords. We will ensure that
it has a secure and effective future. A strong Second Chamber
is a vital safeguard for democracy and contributes to good government.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, building upon the courage, commitment and
increasing success of our security forces, we will give the highest
priority to upholding law and order. We will continue to give
the support essential for the Province to overcome its economic
difficulties.

The people of Northern Ireland will continue to be offered a framework
for participation in local democracy and political progress through
the Assembly. There will be no change in Northern Ireland's constitutional
position in the United Kingdom without the consent of the majority
of people there, and no devolution of powers without widespread
support throughout the community. We believe that a close practical
working relationship between the United Kingdom and the Government
of the Republic can contribute to peace and stability in Northern
Ireland without threatening in any way the position of the majority
community in the Province.

The Quality of Government

This country is fortunate to have a Civil Service with high standards
of administration and integrity. The Civil Service has loyally
and effectively helped to carry through the far-reaching changes
we have made to secure greater economy, efficiency and better
management in Government itself. It is a tribute to this spirit
of co-operation that the number of civil servants has been reduced
from 732,000 to 649,000 with the minimum of redundancies and with
higher standards of service to the citizen. This has saved the
taxpayer about £500m. a year, and is helping us to improve
civil service working conditions.

The efficiency 'scrutinies' launched by Lord Rayner and other
money-saving techniques have now identified savings worth £400m.
a year to the taxpayer. We have abolished 500 Quangos and done
away with no less than 3,600 different types of government forms.

We are successfully putting out to tender more services needed
by central government. We shall press on with this wherever public
money can be saved and standards of service maintained or improved.

Public spending is now planned in terms of hard cash instead of
so-called constant prices, and the discipline of cash limits on
spending has been extended. As a result, public spending is firmly
under control.

Local Government: Saving Ratepayers' Money

We have checked the relentless growth of local government spending,
and manpower is now back down to the level of 1974. The achievement
of many Conservative authorities in saving ratepayers' money by
putting services like refuse collection out to tender has played
a major part in getting better value for money and significantly
reducing the level of rateincreases. We shall encourage
every possible saving by this policy.

There are, however, a number of grossly extravagant Labour authorities
whose exorbitant rate demands have caused great distress both
to businesses and domestic ratepayers. We shall legislate to curb
excessive and irresponsible rate increases by high-spending councils,
and to provide a general scheme for limitation of rate increases
for all local authorities to be used if necessary.

In addition, for industry we will require local authorities to
consult local representatives of industry and commerce before
setting their rates. We shall give more businesses the right to
pay by instalments. And we shall stop the rating of empty industrial
property.

The Metropolitan Councils and the Greater London Council have
been shown to be a wasteful and unnecessary tier of government.
We shall abolish them and return most of their functions to the
boroughs and districts. Services which need to be administered
over a wider area - such as police and fire, and education in
inner London - will be run by joint boards of borough or district
representatives.

IMPROVING OUR ENVIRONMENT

The Conservative Party has a long record of practical and effective
action to improve the quality of life in our cities and countryside
and to preserve our heritage. Since 1979, no government in Western
Europe has done more for the environment - a clumsy word for many
of the things that make life worth living.

Reviving Britain's Cities

We have to cure the disastrous mistakes of decades of town-hall
Socialism by striking a better balance between public and private
effort. Our approach to reviving the rundown areas of our great
cities is to use limited public money to stimulate much larger
investment by private enterprise. The £60m. we have earmarked
for the Urban Development Grant this year will be matched by up
to four times that sum from private firms investing in new developments.
On Merseyside, Operation Groundwork has brought together landowners,
local industry and local authorities to tackle the squalor and
dereliction on the edge of towns. The lessons of this and many
other Merseyside initiatives will now be applied in other urban
areas.

We have encouraged people to move back into the inner cities.
Builders are now being helped to build homes of the type that
young couples in particular can afford. We shall promote this
revival of our inner cities, both by new building, and by sales
by local councils of some of their rundown property to homesteaders
who will restore the homes themselves.

We shall encourage greater opportunity for all those who live
in our inner cities, including our ethnic minorities.

Our small business schemes are helping to bring firms back
into the city centres, and the Enterprise Zones we have set up
are already bringing new life to some of the hardest-hit places
in industrial Britain.

We shall continue to give priority to the areas most in need.
Our programme for the reclamation of derelict land will continue.
We shall increase our efforts to secure the disposal of under-used
public sector land, using the powers available to us in order
to require sites to be sold for homes and jobs.

Public Transport

We have already taken important steps to improve the standards
of public transport. We have lifted restrictions on long-distance
coach services. As a result, about one hundred new express coach
services have been started, fares have been substantially reduced
and comfort improved. We shall further relax bus licensing to
permit a wider variety of services. We shall encourage the creation
of smaller units in place of the monolithic public transport organisations
which we have inherited from the Socialist past, and encourage
more flexible forms of public transport. City buses and underground
railways will still need reasonable levels of subsidy. But greater
efficiency and more private enterprise will help keep costs down.

The GLC has grossly mismanaged London Transport. We shall set
up a new London Regional Transport Authority for the underground,
buses and commuter trains in the London area. This will provide
the opportunity to split the different types of transport into
separate operating bodies, put more services out to private tender
and offer the passenger better performance.

In the country, we shall ensure better use of school and special
buses for local communities. Restrictions on minibuses will be
cut. So will the red tape which makes it so difficult for small
firms and voluntary bodies to provide better ways to get around
for those without cars, particularly the very old and the disabled.

We want to see a high-quality, efficient railway service. That
does not mean simply providing ever-larger subsidies from the
taxpayer. Nor, on the other hand, does it mean embarking upon
a programme of major route closures. There is, however, scope
for substantial cost reductions in British Rail which are needed
to justify investment in a modern and efficient railway.

Fewer restrictive practices and much more attention to the customer
are also essential. Rail services are now facing vigorous competition
from coaches and cars, and they need to respond with more innovative
and more modern work methods. We shall examine ways of decentralising
BR and bringing in private enterprise to serve railway customers.

To make life more agreeable in our towns and villages, we will
push ahead our bypass programme, which will help to take more
lorries away from them.

Rural Policy and Animal Welfare

Conservatives understand the need for a proper balance between
the strengthening of the rural economy and the preservation of
the beauty and habitat of our countryside.

Economic development will be encouraged in areas where this balance
can be best maintained. At the same time, we have introduced the
Wildlife and Countryside Act - the most important piece of legislation
yet affecting the countryside - to safeguard areas of natural
beauty and sites of scientific interest.

We have taken the lead in the much acclaimed measures to save
the whale from extinction and to protect seals, and we shall co-operate
fully in the important international work to protect all endangered
species.

Since 1979, we have been working to achieve full European agreement
on the treatment of animals. We have introduced measures to improve
the conditions of farm animals being transported or exported.
There is now a European Convention on the Protection of Animals.
We welcomed this agreement, and immediately introduced a White
Paper on Animal Welfare to foreshadow changes in the law. We now
propose to introduce legislation to update the Cruelty to Animals
Act 1876 which will ensure more humane treatment of laboratory
animals in scientific and industrial research. The sale of pet
animals in street markets has been banned.

Controlling Pollution

We intend to remove lead from petrol, and are taking the initiative
with our European partners to achieve this at the earliest possible
date. We will press ahead with our plans to reduce lead in paints,
food and drinking water.

We will continue our policy to reduce river pollution - the length
of polluted rivers has been halved in the last ten years, and
this work will continue. We shall tighten up the controls on the
disposal of hazardous waste and continue to support the movement
for recycling and reclamation.

The worst problems of air pollution have been resolved. But in
some areas the levels of smoke and sulphur dioxide need to be
further reduced.

The peaceful application of nuclear energy, if properly controlled
(as it always has been in this country), will be beneficial to
the environment as well as to the economy. We intend to make sure
that the safety record of the British nuclear industry continues
to be second to none. The Sizewell Inquiry into Britain's first
Pressurised Water Reactor is well under way. The project will
go ahead only if both the independent inspector and the Government
are satisfied it is safe.

Arts and the Heritage

Despite the recession, this Government has strengthened its support
for the best of our heritage and for the performing arts. We have
created the National Heritage Memorial Fund, which fulfils the
long-delayed wish to commemorate the dead of two world wars in
a permanent and tangible way. We are building a new British Library.
The new Commission for Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings
will both safeguard our heritage and give more people a chance
to enjoy it. Under the Conservatives, Britain's opera, theatre
and ballet continue to win world-wide renown. And our tax changes
have helped to revive the British film industry. We shall keep
up the level of government support, including a fair share for
the regions. We shall also examine ways of using the tax system
to encourage further growth in private support for the arts and
the heritage.

BRITAIN IN THE WORLD

For nearly four decades, Europe has been at peace. The strength
of the Western Alliance has kept our own freedoms secure. The
possession of nuclear weapons by both sides has been an effective
deterrent to another war in Europe.

The policies which our Labour opponents now propose would put
at risk all this hard-won security.

The Protection of Peace

The invasion of Afghanistan and the suppression of dissent in
Poland remind us of the true nature of the Soviet Union. It remains
a threat to the liberty and security of the West. The Soviet Union
maintains massive armed forces in Europe, and is extending its
naval power throughout the world. Soviet nuclear strength continues
to grow, despite the false assurances of their propaganda machine.

Labour's support for gestures of one-sided disarmament is reckless
and naive. There is no shred of evidence to suggest that the Soviet
bloc would follow such an example.

Labour would give up Britain's nuclear deterrent and prevent the
United States from using its bases in Britain which are part of
its nuclear shield over Europe. That would shatter the NATO Alliance,
and put our safety in the greatest jeopardy.

We will fully support the negotiations to reduce the deployment
of nuclear weapons. But we will not gamble with our defence.

The Soviet Union now has over one thousand SS20 warheads, two-thirds
of which are targeted on Europe. If the Soviet Union does not
recognise over the coming months the legitimate anxieties of the
West by agreeing to our proposals to eliminate this class of weapons,
we will start deploying cruise missiles by the end of this year.
Even after this, the West will remain entirely ready to negotiate
for the removal of some or all of the missiles which we deploy,
on the basis of a balanced and fair agreement with the Soviet
Union.

The Western Alliance can keep the peace only if we can convince
any potential aggressor that he would have to pay an unacceptable
price. To do so, NATO must have strong conventional forces backed
by a nuclear deterrent. And we in Britain must maintain our own
independent nuclear contribution to British and European defence.
At the same time, we shall continue to support all realistic efforts
to reach balanced and verifiable agreements with the Soviet Union
on arms control and disarmament.

We have substantially increased our defence expenditure in real
terms. We have honoured our promise to give our regular and reserve
forces proper pay and conditions and the equipment they need to
do the job.

There could be no greater testimony to the professional dedication
and the quality of equipment of the British Armed Services than
the brilliant recapture of the Falkland Islands in just 74 days.
We take pride in their achievement.

Civil Defence

Our overriding desire and policy is to go on preserving peace.

However, no responsible government can simply assume that we shall
never be attacked. To plan for civil defence is a humanitarian
duty - not only against the possibility of nuclear. but also of
conventional attack.

That is why we must take steps to provide the help that could
be vital for millions. To proclaim a nuclear-free zone, as some
Labour councils have, is a delusion.

The Conservative Government has accordingly carried out a thorough
review of civil defence, brought forward new regulations to require
local authorities to provide improved protection, strengthened
the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisations, and nearly doubled
spending on civil defence.

We propose to amend the Civil Defence Act 1948 to enable civil
defence funds to be used in safeguarding against peacetime emergencies
as well as against hostile attacks.

Britain in Europe

The creation of the European Community has been vital in cementing
lasting peace in Europe and ending centuries of hostility. We
came to office determined to make a success of British membership
of the Community. This we have done.

Our first priority in 1979 was to cut our financial contribution
to the Community Budget to a fairer level. Labour made a song
and dance about renegotiating the terms, but had achieved nothing.
The bill to British taxpayers soared.

We have stood up for Britain's interests, and substantially reduced
our net contribution to the Community Budget. We have tenaciously
sought a permanent alternative to the annual wrangles about refunds.
Until we secure a lasting solution, we shall make sure of proper
interim safeguards for this country. Meanwhile, with the help
of Conservatives in the European Parliament, we shall continue
to try to shift the Community's spending priorities away from
agriculture and towards industrial, regional and other policies
which help Britain more.

We shall continue both to oppose petty acts of Brussels bureaucracy
and to seek the removal of unnecessary restrictions on the free
movement of goods and services between member states, with proper
safeguards to guarantee fair competition.

The Labour Party wants Britain to withdraw from the Community,
because it fears that Britain cannot compete inside and that it
would be easier to build a Socialist siege economy if we withdrew.
The Liberals and the SDP appear to want Britain to stay in but
never to upset our partners by speaking up forcefully. The Conservatives
reject both extreme views.

The European Community is the world's largest trading group. It
is by far our most important export market. Withdrawal would be
a catastrophe for this country. As many as two million jobs would
be at risk. We would lose the great export advantages and the
attraction to overseas investors which membership now gives us.
It would be a fateful step towards isolation, at which only the
Soviet Union and her allies would rejoice.

A Trading Nation

Our most important contribution to a healthy world economy is
to manage our own affairs successfully. We shall also build on
our important role in promoting international action to encourage
recovery through the IMF and other international organisations.
With the other leading industrial nations, we shall continue with
our realistic initiatives to improve currency stability in the
Western world, and assist nations with excessive debts to regain
stability. Together with the Community, we are also playing a
leading part in preserving an open world trading system, while
safeguarding our most vulnerable industries.

While world trade declined last year, our exports and share of
world trade increased, and we enjoyed a healthy balance of payments
surplus, despite the pessimists who said the pound was uncompetitive.
We believe in reinforcing success. This Government has given wholehearted
support to British companies tendering for major overseas projects,
and helped them secure many important contracts in the face of
the toughest competition.

We will build on these initiatives to help our exporters, and
vigorously promote the interests of British trade and industry
in international negotiations - where we have already made our
presence very effectively felt. We have no intention of becoming
a dumping ground for the goods of other nations. We shall continue
to challenge other nations' unfair barriers, whether in the shape
of tariffs or trading practices.

Our Wider Role

In a troubled world, Britain is increasingly respected because
we stand up for our own interests. But we are also respected because
we stand up for the cause of freedom and the spread of prosperity
throughout the world.

We resisted unprovoked aggression in the Falkland Islands, when
the loyal support of our friends throughout the world reminded
us of our common heritage of freedom. We will continue to uphold
the principles for which we fought.

We shall continue to give our full support to the Commonwealth
and to play an active and constructive part at the United Nations.

Our generous but carefully controlled aid programme is both an
investment in the freedom and prosperity of the poorer countries
and in a stable and expanding world economy. That programme helps
us as well as those who receive it, since most of it is spent
on British goods and services. More than many other nations, we
direct our aid to the poorest countries, particularly in the Commonwealth.

But government aid is only a part of the total help we give the
developing world. Unlike the Labour Party, we believe in permitting
a free and profitable outflow of British investment. That flow
to poorer countries has now grown far larger than British Government
aid, bringing with it an invaluable transfer of skills and technology.

THE RESOLUTE APPROACH

This Government's approach is straightforward and resolute. We
mean what we say. We face the truth, even when it is painful.
And we stick to our purpose.

Most decisions worth taking are difficult. Cutting a clear path
through the jungle of a modern bureaucracy is hard going. The
world recession of the past four years, and the high level of
unemployment throughout the industrial world, have made the going
harder.

During these difficult years, we have protected the sick and the
elderly. We have maintained Britain's defences and her contribution
to the Western Alliance. And at the same time, we have laid the
foundations for a dynamic and prosperous future.

The rewards are beginning to appear. If we continue on our present
course with courage and commonsense, those rewards should multiply
in the next five years.

We shall never lose sight of the British traditions of fairness
and tolerance. We are also determined to revive those other British
qualities - a genius for invention and a spirit of enterprise.

Under Conservative government, confidence is brushing aside pessimism
at home. Abroad, Britain is regarded for the first time in years
as a country with a great future as well as a great past.